CELL SHORTAGE: TOO MANY INMATES AND TOO FEW PRISONS

Sen. John Kerr was right. It's a tough issue.

Kerr, who has keen insight into the state's finances, was among those
interviewed about a growing dilemma: North Carolina's jails and
prisons are overfilled, and money needed to expand and operate them
is nil.

There does not appear to be an ideal solution.

One is to keep fewer people in prison, perhaps by amending the
Structured Sentencing Act to allow parole.

Another is simply to bite the bullet and build more prisons.

The Structured Sentencing Act allows judges to punish first-offenders
without imposing active prison terms for many nonviolent crimes. But
for subsequent offenses, prison terms must be served in full.

When it was passed in 1994, there was much tooth-gnashing by people
who thought there should be a jail term for every offense. But time
has shown that the act is not soft on crime. Our prisons are teeming,
and a big increase in the number of prisoners is anticipated.

By 2010, the inmate population is expected to increase by 10,000.
Kerr points out that housing that many more prisoners will cost the
state a half-billion dollars a year.

Some law enforcement officials note that parole and probation
officials are overworked with the caseloads they have. The more cases
a probation officer has, the less supervision each gets. Hence, the
prospect of further crime.

Kerr suggests weekend work camps for some violators, an idea that is
worth considering. They might be administered at relatively low cost,
and they might provide a way for offenders to earn money for
restitution and costs.

The Goldsboro police chief, J.M. Warrick Jr., said that 90 percent of
the cases that his department handles are related in some way to
drugs -- largely thefts committed to buy them.

If such a majority of inmates are imprisoned for drug-related
offenses, and if our prison population is growing so fast that we
can't figure out what to do, and if drug use continues to be a big
problem, all of that raises a question: Are we going about
discouraging drug use and addiction in the right way?

There is no ideal solution, but the situation should be studied from
all angles.

- --MIKE ROUSE